The OpenAjax Alliance has a wiki to encourage all of us to vote on features we would like to see implemented in the next generation of web browsers. There are about fifty on there so far, ranging from the utopian to the frankly silly.

Now I guarantee that, as you read this, your brain is aligning itself into one of two philosophical camps. Either you are thinking "I want a browser that does tons of cool things natively - I should be able to play World of Warcraft directly in the browser and watch live TV and have teledildonic relationships - all without the need for lots of complicated plug-ins."

Or you are thinking "Forget all that rubbish! I just want a streamlined browser that displayes web pages quickly and doesn't expose me to hackers and porn with a single mis-click."

A faster horse

This is why asking people what they want (about anything) is a terrible idea. Before the web was invented, if you'd asked people what they wanted from the internet, they would have told you "faster FTP" or maybe "extended ASCII support in Veronica".

Asking what you want to see in the next generation of web browsers already assumes that we want another generation of web browsers. Whereas actually, we need to get rid of the browser altogether. Or rather, the distinction between the browser and the desktop.

What is the point of reverse-engineering lo-fi web-enabled versions of the operating system and our favourite applications, just so we can squint through the smeary glass of Internet Explorer? I want the whole planet right there on my desktop.

I know, I know. It would be a security nightmare to implement. But I'm telling you what I want not what would be easy to knock up.